Blog

By Ibrahim Diallo September 25th marked this year’s National Voter Registration Day (NVRD), a national holiday celebrated on the fourth Tuesday of every September to register eligible voters and spread awareness of upcoming elections and local opportunities to become civically engaged. As a premier partner of NVRD, AAI coordinated voter...

In a hearing on Wednesday, September 26th, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce addressed the topic of free speech on college campuses. To begin, Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) stated that institutions of higher education “curbing speech” via anti-harassment policies threaten to undermine the cultivation of students’ critical...

By Ibrahim Diallo On September 22nd and 24th, The Arab American Institute and our national partners, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Open the Government, hosted our Fall 2018 National Leadership Summit, Our America: Harness Power, Change Policy. The Summit consisted of convenings in two cities: Dearborn, MI, and...

On Wednesday, September 12th, Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding hosted a discussion with four leading scholars and activists in the areas of Palestinian Christianity and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. James Zogby of the Arab American Institute, The Telos Group’s...

By Anastasia Horn About one percent of hate crimes committed in the United States are reported in official statistics. Despite the lack of adequate data, we know that specific communities, including Arab Americans and American Muslims, currently face an increased risk of targeted violence. On September 6, 2018, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) hosted a briefing...

On Thursday, September 6th, 2018, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, in coordination with the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), hosted a congressional briefing titled "Improving Federal Hate Crimes Enforcement." The following are prepared remarks from AAI's Policy Associate, Kai Wiggins, who served as a panelist. Improving Our Response to Hate Crime: The Need for...

The Trump Administration has been working toward presenting his “deal of the century” and delivering Palestinian-Israeli peace during his tenure in office. Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been seen as a key issue to delivering “peace and stability” to the region. Every President in recent history has attempted to present...

Last week NBC News reported that Trump is preparing yet another policy to prevent new Americans from their own pursuit of happiness. This proposal is in line with the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant worldview and reflects a broader normalization of xenophobia in a last-ditch effort to reverse demographic change in America....

Sunday marks the second anniversary of the murder of Khalid Jabara, who was killed on the front porch of his Tulsa, Oklahoma, home on August 12, 2016. The killer, who lived next door to the Jabaras, was convicted of first-degree murder, a hate crime, and two misdemeanors. This tragic, preventable...

The sixth anniversary of the shooting at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, which left six Sikh Americans dead and multiple wounded, was on Sunday, August 5. This week, on August 12, we will observe the second anniversary of the hate crime murder of Khalid Jabara in Tulsa, Oklahoma,...